GLI Capstone Presentation Session: North UC Ballroom
UM Volunteers for Global Health Access
Presentation Type
Presentation
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Peter Koehn
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Political Science
Abstract / Artist's Statement
As part of the Global Leadership Initiative of the University of Montana, the UM Volunteers for Global Health Access (UMVGHA) was developed to increase healthcare access in Missoula and South Africa. After an extensive literature review and focus groups with healthcare professionals, doctors, and patients, we isolated the challenge of healthcare access among low-income populations in Missoula and the surrounding areas. Through our research we identified a need within our community for increased transportation from the surrounding areas of Missoula as well as an online resource that can increase the health literacy of patients. We created a website that provides health information specific to Missoula, resources that cater to the low-income population, and a link to our transportation program. The transportation program is a framework which aims to connect volunteers from the community with patients who need rides to appointments at Partnership Health Center. We have developed this framework in such a way that it can be implemented in the next few years. Due to the global focus of the GLI, we also created a framework that can be carried out in Cape Town, South Africa. This aspect includes defining the parameters of our program and how it can be adapted and implemented in the townships surrounding Cape Town, South Africa. Our interest in Cape Town is due to the connection one of our group members has with organizations there. We plan to utilize these relationships.
Category
Interdisciplinary (GLI)
UM Volunteers for Global Health Access
North UC Ballroom
As part of the Global Leadership Initiative of the University of Montana, the UM Volunteers for Global Health Access (UMVGHA) was developed to increase healthcare access in Missoula and South Africa. After an extensive literature review and focus groups with healthcare professionals, doctors, and patients, we isolated the challenge of healthcare access among low-income populations in Missoula and the surrounding areas. Through our research we identified a need within our community for increased transportation from the surrounding areas of Missoula as well as an online resource that can increase the health literacy of patients. We created a website that provides health information specific to Missoula, resources that cater to the low-income population, and a link to our transportation program. The transportation program is a framework which aims to connect volunteers from the community with patients who need rides to appointments at Partnership Health Center. We have developed this framework in such a way that it can be implemented in the next few years. Due to the global focus of the GLI, we also created a framework that can be carried out in Cape Town, South Africa. This aspect includes defining the parameters of our program and how it can be adapted and implemented in the townships surrounding Cape Town, South Africa. Our interest in Cape Town is due to the connection one of our group members has with organizations there. We plan to utilize these relationships.